DREAM Act receives a push from ed secretary

Duncan says that nation is 'absolutely backward' on the issue.

By Jennifer R. Lloyd :
March 8, 2012
: Updated: March 9, 2012 2:04am

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is impressed by Sofia Rocha, 11, who says she is the mayor of a microtown called Adamsville at Adams Elementary.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

With Mayor Julián Castro at his side, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Café College.

Photo By TOM REEL/San Antonio Express-News

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan answers questions at a town hall meeting to discuss affordability and Hispanic schooling issues at the Cafe College.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan revved a San Antonio audience Thursday by urging steps to keep college affordable and expressing dismay that the DREAM Act has not become law.

“We have to get the DREAM Act passed,” he said of the proposal, stalled in Congress last year, that would create a path to citizenship for children brought to the United States illegally who seek a college degree or serve in the military. “The fact that that hasn't happened yet is a source of immense frustration for both the president and I.”

As the crowd applauded, he added: “I just think, as a country, we are absolutely backward on this issue.”

Duncan and Mayor Julián Castro spoke to about 150 people — Lanier High School students, Alamo Colleges Chancellor Bruce Leslie and area Democratic office-holders among them — in the main room of Café College, with dozens more watching via webcast from a nearby classroom. About 200 watched online.

Duncan said the administration has worked to simplify financial aid forms and increase access to college through the Federal Pell Grant Program. The next step, he said, is to ensure students graduate.

To raise completion rates, the administration proposed a Race to the Top competition for federal higher education money.

Duncan said that if Congress approves, the competition would include about $1 billion a year in incentives. The administration wants to shift resources to universities that keep costs low and increase graduation rates, he said.

“Historically, the federal government has not done enough to incentivize good behavior, and, frankly to have some sticks when there's bad behavior,” Duncan said.

Universities that don't meet those goals could see their federal dollars go elsewhere.

“If we are sending huge amounts of (campus-based) aid where young folks aren't graduating, is that the best use of taxpayer dollars?” Duncan asked. “Should we be shifting some of those resources to institutions that have a better commitment, that are really serious about having young people, English-language learners, first-generation college-goers, graduate?”

In the crowd, Ariadna Martinez, a 10th-grade Lanier student who would be the first in her family to go to college, was glad to hear about grant possibilities.

“My parents don't have the money to pay for my whole college, so I'll try to find as many scholarships as I can to help me manage,” Martinez said.

Duncan met with Gov. Rick Perry earlier Thursday in Austin and said the two had a “tremendous meeting of the minds” about containing college costs.

Last year, Perry challenged universities to create a $10,000 bachelor's degree and this week the Texas A&M University System unveiled three such degrees, one of which will be available in San Antonio.

Perry opted out of prior Race to the Top competitions for federal education dollars, and has said, “Our state and our communities must reserve the right to decide how we educate our children and not surrender that control to a federal bureaucracy.”

On Thursday, Duncan said he would encourage Texas to pursue options in any future Race to the Top competitions for higher education.